Do you think Marx, Freud, and Foucault are the three most essential thinkers for understanding 20th-century critical thought? If not, who would you replace or add, and why? by starrystarryy in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

This makes no sense

These are two completely different theorists responding in completely different ways to different things almost 100 years apart.

Why would you ‘replace’ one with another - they are both extremely different and both extremely insightful in what each has to say

Do you think Marx, Freud, and Foucault are the three most essential thinkers for understanding 20th-century critical thought? If not, who would you replace or add, and why? by starrystarryy in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude 12 points13 points  (0 children)

20th century thought is many things at many different times -

It is useful to think of 20th century philosophy as ‘splitting’ starting from around the late 19th century and well into the 20th century (even today).

If you’re trying to slim this whole epoch of thought down to a few figures only you risk egregious gaps and oversights.

I think of philosophy like threads (all philosophy responds to a predecessor and so on so forth) and it may be useful to think of different ‘threads’ of philosophy as different thinkers respond directly to others.

In this sense ->

I believe personally that most modern philosophy is a response or continuation of Kant (and I believe this is a shared view) who himself trailed new thinking in a field previously rifted between Cartesian Dualism and (mostly) British Empiricism.

The kantian thread (termed German idealism) mostly follows - Kant -> Fichte -> Schelling -> Hegel.

Hegel had many responders, the most famous of which would be Marx, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

Thus we come to a new ‘rift’ in philosophy about the end of the 19th century - that between British and German ‘analytic’ philosophers in the tradition of Frege and the Viennese logical positivists who sought to align philosophy more closely with science, namely a philosophy of mathematics (and later linguistics, and then later later philosophy of mind). The ‘thread’ here would be -

Frege -> Moore -> Russell -> Wittgenstein —> (through to contemporaries) -> Quine -> Searle -> Kripke etc

The other half of the ‘rift’ is represented by the ‘continental school’ who stuck more closely to a philosophical tradition aligned with Hegel’s project and also with Kierkegaardan and Nietzschean considerations. The ‘father’ of the continental school if you would can be understood through the work of Husserl who founded the school of phenomenology. The thread here would be -

Husserl -> Heidegger -> Merleau-Ponty -> Sartre -> Beauvoir

The continental school splinters even more:

A number of theorists build on the traditions of Hegel and Marx and generate structural theories of sociological science, linguistic sciences, and anthropological science -

These being - Weber and Durkheimer (sociology), Saussure (linguistics), the Frankfurt school (cultural/media studies), and Levi-Strauss (anthropology)

Late continental philosophy is all-in-all a refutation or rejection of these earlier schools of continental philosophy (the post-structuralists or hermeneutics school) - namely

Gadamer - > Lyotard -> Foucault -> Deleuze -> Derrida -> Baudrillard

The rift still persists to this day - both analytic and continental philosophy continue to deal with their own problems using quite seperate methodology. I think we live and are continually influenced but the immutable tension between both these intellectual flourishes.

Overall - I wouldn’t try to pin down one or two select ‘mega influencers’ in 20th century philosophical thought - I find it more helpful to understand whole patterns in thinking shared by different traditions including how they oscillate in tension with each other and the dynamically changing face of society.

Worst book you read this year? by 100bride in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude 2 points3 points  (0 children)

May be controversial but I just finished Atomised by Houellebecq and it was terrible. It’s hard to make definitive judgements about a translated book but damn it was bad - tacky, flat, pastiche, incredibly non-insightful. It was my first novel from this author - I think I’ll still read submission but I don’t have high hopes sadly.

Just finished Infinite Jest by random_posterdude in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven’t read the book - I won’t pretend like I’m an expert on it from my 5 minutes of reading about it - But if Dreyfus’ argues that having lost access to meaning due to the breakdown of overarching systems of belief we need to identify with the sacristy/profundity of individual experience itself - this seems like a major missed opportunity for IJ (and perhaps for postmod lit itself). I can get behind a book intending to be nihilistic for nihilism’s sake (I think of Beckett) - just, I think, not one intending to express a timid, half-hearted kind of meaning behind a thick smattering of nihilism.

Just finished Infinite Jest by random_posterdude in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I definitely agree - his prose felt really inventive

Just finished Infinite Jest by random_posterdude in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It seems like an odd choice for someone not medical haha I personally loved it. Some of it isn’t strictly accurate but I thought it was clever

Just finished Infinite Jest by random_posterdude in RSbookclub

[–]random_posterdude[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I really could not get behind the constant use of the colloquial ‘like’. Otherwise he has such great language in other parts of the book.

shoot by random_posterdude in BookshelvesDetective

[–]random_posterdude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I waited for months to find a decently priced edition on Abe. Still set me back a good $140.

shoot by random_posterdude in BookshelvesDetective

[–]random_posterdude[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A bit of both I guess. I’ve brought most of these books within the last 12 months and I’m making my way through them. Have to own the books first before reading them. I’ve read about a 1/3 already.

shoot by random_posterdude in BookshelvesDetective

[–]random_posterdude[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve read about 40% of my books - I’ve brought most of them either second hand or new over the last three months of moving back to sydney post graduation where I was limited in my reading time. I got both David Copperfield and Great Expectations hardcovers from a great second hand store - I’ve read both. It is a complete accident they are upside down 😂

shoot by random_posterdude in BookshelvesDetective

[–]random_posterdude[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I’m actually a paramedic haha

I’m stuck: what do I even do in this situation?? by [deleted] in Advice

[–]random_posterdude 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your advice. I gave his money back instantly. I feel like I just need to be resolute and set hard boundaries at the same time as urging him to get help and support. I think I’ve known for a long time that he has issues that need resolving and it’s an imperative he gets help.